Evelyn Galindo of Carnegie Learning, writing in eSchool News, says AI still struggles with aspects of human intelligence, especially when it comes to nuance, creativity and real-world application.
She points out 10 areas where AI falls short–and why human intelligence remains essential:
1) Switching seamlessly between languages
“Bilingual students often engage in code-switching, blending languages based on context, audience and emotion. AI translation systems process languages separately, making it difficult to replicate the fluidity of real-world multilingual communication. This is a significant gap in AI’s ability to support language learners and culturally diverse classrooms.”
2) Understanding context
“AI can summarize a passage or analyze a text, but it often misses the deeper meaning, tone and cultural nuance, especially in literature and history. A BBC study found that AI-generated news summaries were riddled with factual inaccuracies because chatbots failed to interpret meaning accurately.”
3) Formatting documents
“Educators often use AI to generate lesson plans, worksheets, and reports. But AI-generated documents frequently have inconsistent formatting, including mismatched fonts, awkward spacing and misaligned bullet points. Lack of coherence makes materials harder to read and less engaging.”
4) Addressing sustainability and environmental impact
“AI can help optimize energy efficiency but its environmental footprint is massive. Training large AI models consumes enormous amounts of energy. OpenAI’s GPT-3 required 1,287 megawatt-hours to train–comparable to the annual energy consumption of 120 U.S. homes. As schools adopt AI tools, sustainability must be part of the conversation.”
5) Generating truly new ideas
“AI doesn’t create truly original ideas. For example, AI can generate writing prompts by pulling patterns from past literature but cannot develop entirely new literary styles, philosophies or scientific theories. Critical thinking and innovation are uniquely human skills.”
6) Recognizing humor
“AI doesn’t grasp humor naturally because it relies on logic and pattern recognition rather than emotional and social awareness. This is why AI-generated jokes often fall flat or sound robotic. Effective humor depends on timing, cultural understanding and relationships–elements AI still struggles to replicate.”
7) Retaining knowledge
“AI experiences catastrophic forgetting, meaning that as it learns new information, it forgets previously learned data unless explicitly retrained. In contrast, human learners build on prior knowledge, connecting ideas and recalling past lessons over time. This is a major limitation for AI-powered tutoring systems. AI tutoring often has trouble retaining long-term context across multiple student interactions.”
8) Navigating ambiguities
“AI excels at pattern recognition, but real-world problems often lack clear-cut solutions. For instance, AI can easily solve structured math problems but struggles with open-ended questions drawing on interpreting ambiguous data, ethical considerations or creative reasoning. This is a substantial gap in AI’s ability to support higher-order thinking skills.”
9) Understanding and expressing true emotional intelligence
“AI does not experience emotions or understand human relationships. In education, where emotional intelligence plays a key role in student success, AI cannot replace human educators who provide mentorship, encouragement and emotional support.”
10) Managing everyday human tasks
“AI can generate curriculum plans and assess student work, but it still can’t perform basic physical tasks that require real-world adaptability. For example, robots struggle with soft materials, making tasks like folding laundry incredibly difficult. AI is transforming digital education, but it still has major limitations in physical, hands-on learning environments like vocational training and lab-based sciences.
“Educators should embrace AI as a tool to enhance learning while recognizing its limitations. Human intelligence, adaptability and empathy remain irreplaceable in education.”
eSchool News
